Oh my goodness. 11 months!!!! You are almost one entire year old. It’s weird because I cannot believe you have been here for this long but I also cannot imagine my life without you in it. You are an angel. An actual earth angel that is always smiling and exploring and running(!!) around and playing with your sister and charging at me with arms open to give me a hug.

Let’s back up a bit. So last month you were taking a few steps. You were cautious and the balance wasn’t there just yet. This month, you are actually sprinting across the room. Since you are a troublemaker (an adorable one), it is usually to the stairs or to get your sister’s sippy cup or rip her bows out of her hair!!!

You learned how to use a straw this month and how to jump up and down in your crib. You LOVE the bath so much that you can barely take the excitement. You actually try to climb up the side of the tub to get in before I can even take your diaper off. Once you are in the tub, you stand up and grab everything and plop down and laugh at the splashes. You also love to quickly put your face in the water and try to drink it!

You love to give high fives and wave at people! Your babbling has increased a ton and we can even make out some words! You definitely say mama, dada, River (your dog), ball, hi, and bye. Your main form of communication is pointing to the things you want or in the direction you want to go! It’s pretty clear that you are picking up on our conversations and body language. You love to look directly at us and you babble away. I am loving this stage because I can see you learning and taking it all in.

You sort of know how to throw a ball, which is awesome. Sometimes it goes backwards and you get confused and try to find it. You impress me with the amount of food you can eat (yet still be so small) and it is absolutely hilarious to watch you aggressively shove food in your mouth like it is your last meal. Your favorite foods right now are definitely bananas, broccoli, pasta, avocados, sweet potatoes, and blueberries (but you will actually eat anything).

My favorite thing about you is that you are so snuggly. You love to be in my arms and to give me a good, long hug (and then my heart explodes, nbd).

My little love bug. I am completely obsessed with seeing your big smile as you crawl (and step) towards me! That’s right, you are taking steps. I love how cute you look when taking steps because you are so tiny. I also think you’re too young for this, stop growing up so fast, please and thank you.

In addition to the steps, you had a few other firsts this month including waving, clapping, and (fortunately and unfortunately) you were sick. Fortunately, because we avoided daycare germs for 7 months and unfortunately, because you barfed all over me a few times (and gave me flashbacks to your first 6 months of life).

You’re still nursing (yay!) and you are totally smitten with your big sister. You’re getting bigger and are pretty mobile so you guys interact much more. Christmas was incredibly fun with the both of you.

You love grabbing at everything and everyone and most of the time the grabbing turns into pinching or pulling. You also started biting my shoulder when I hold you, so random.

You absolutely love eating and are getting 3 full meals at school (plus another at home). You also love being tickled and you laugh so loud and grab my face.

Best news of all, you are sleeping more and more as the weeks go on and from the bottom of my heart, I THANK YOU.

My handsome man (is it getting repetitive yet?), I just love you so much. So much fun ahead. I can’t wait!

Every month with you is getting really fun. You are starting to show opinions on things that you love (throwing toys, your tambourine, being tossed into the air) and things that you could live without (playing in the exersaucer, not being allowed to play with River’s water bowl, when you don’t have any food left).

You started waving and love to play with River. Your favorite thing to do is to knock towers of blocks over very aggressively. You also LOVE to eat. You’re still a munchkin, weighing in at 17 lb 7 oz but are on the taller side just like your sister.

You are showing signs of mischief! You crawl really fast into the kitchen and when I say “Where are you going Mister?”, you smile at me and beeline to the garbage can and River’s water bowl.

You will pull yourself up onto anything you can and are so proud when it’s iffy and you don’t fall over. You’re so curious about everything and want to be in a million places at once which makes you totally distracted when it comes to nursing so I try to feed you in a quiet room.

We had a family photo shoot this month and I wanted to share some of my favorite pictures. It was a little dicey at times with behavior (why we needed the quick nursing session!) but the pics came out so well! I love the pictures of you and your sister. You both make me so happy!

I can’t wait to see you continue to grow. I have a feeling the next few months are going to be really fun!

Meet Ashley

Welcome to Running Bun! I am Ashley, a working-mom who loves running and training for races, attempting yoga inversions, a strong cocktail, and a good dose of sarcasm. This blog is where I share a lot of random thoughts about the above with some parenting woes mixed in for good measure.